Oh, Happy Fall
by LarvalStalkerRory
Summary: Previously "Another Night" -Dan and Laurie's relationship is falling apart. Dan is leaning towards alcoholism and a mysterious stranger appears who bears a striking resemblance to Rorschach.
1. Another Night

I

**Another Night**

Another sleepless night. Another night full of silent sobs and choked regrets. Another night with ears fine tuned to any sounds from downstairs. Hoping with each heart beat to hear the creak of the cupboard by the fridge and the clearing of a throat. Daniel knew he would not hear it. With a small sigh he gently shoved the slim arm away that wrapped around him, holding him in bed, in this mundane mediocrity. With silence he had learned through years of patrolling, he slipped out of the blankets and made his way to the door without a sound. Save for the echoed sigh that fell from his lips as he stood in the doorway looking at the alien in his bed.

Laurie. Once upon a time he loved her. He longed for her and felt an amazing surge of life each time she pressed her full, lipstick covered mouth against his naked, naive one. Each time she touched his chest, his shoulder, was in his breathing space, he felt at home. Now he didn't know her. He didn't know why he wished for Jon's exile so he could have Laurie in his arms. He didn't love her.

He shook his head. And ran his hand through his wavy, brown hair. He still cared for her, right? After all he offered her half of his bed, half of his home, half of his life. He didn't think about kicking her out, asking her to leave or simply breaking up. He must care. He must love her.

Because he had no one else...

"Fuck" he breathed as he wandered down the stairs and into the dark kitchen. His eyes shut tight as he flipped on the switch, shrinking his pupils. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, he wondered why he was there. Why did he leave the bed? The warm contentment he shared with that woman had become almost a suffocating heat. A mugginess he did not enjoy.

His hand lingered in front of a cupboard over the microwave, and he slowly creaked it open. Looking through tearing up eyes at a brown bottle of whiskey. " just a little...? to ease the pain?" he muttered. He shut his eyes, shook his head and allowed his hand to grab a glass beside the bottle and slam the door. He downed two glasses of water, in some sort of attempt to drown the sobs he had been holding for months now.

"Dan?" Laurie's voice wrapped around his neck "what's wrong?"

Daniel breathed deep and faked a smile before turning to her. "Just thirsty. Sleeping with the window open always dries my throat out" he turned and filled the glass once more to prove his point. Whatever that may be.

Laurie leaned on the doorway, a small, sleepy smile on her face. She bought it. She bought every time he said he was ok. She was not able, or simply not willing, to see past his fake smile and simple laugh. She wasn't like Ror-

"Come one, Dan" she wrapped her fingers around the sleeve of his pyjama shirt "Let's go back upstairs".

The realization that she wanted him to make love to her hit him like a fist in the stomach. The icy cold water sloshed in his stomach and he winced. The last time he had really made love to her was that night, in Archie. The night of the fire in the apartment building, when he became Nite Owl once more. The night they saved his partner...

Since that night he was unable to see her the same. Trying to make love to her just ended up in a simple fuck and her falling asleep on his arm. She misread it as a cuddle. She misread it as love.

He bit his lip and smiled at her once more. An attempt to look sexy? He didn't even know. He allowed her to lead him up the stairs, back to the room he tried so hard to escape.

Without resistance, he was pushed onto the bed, feeling a slight breeze as his shirt was pulled open. His nipples perked gently from the stray wind, and Laurie took this as a good sign. She crawled on top of him. He felt like a corpse about to be ripped to shreds by some carnivorous beast. She kissed his torso, working her way up to his gently fleshy cheeks, finally making her way to his lips.

His mind was everywhere but in the bedroom. Thinking about months ago in the blowing snow, in Karnack. Screaming on his knees. Hours before, shaking hands with his partner, his best friend.

Laurie was straddling his hips know. Kissing him passionately, he kissed back, and rested his hands on her hips. Voluntary movements, scripted, and meaningless. He felt his hips lift and rub against Laurie. Shit. He bit his lip as Laurie traced kisses on his neck and throat. Fuck. He thought, he closed his eyes, trying to focus on the limp flesh between his legs. Get up! He growled in his mind. No good.

Laurie would certainly notice, and get angry, probably insult his manhood or compare him to Jon as she had done a few times since Karnack. He though deeply about what to do, how to fix this and let her just have her fuck and go back to sleep.

Laurie began to grind, then stopped, looking at him with disappointment "Really?"

He had to. He had to fantasize, he imagined Laurie in her black and yellow latex costume, her hair slung over one side. Landing punches on gang members faces, through skulls. There we go, he was growing harder now. Imagining that amazing, shining costume.

Laurie smiled and kissed him hard and began grinding against him, harder this time.

"Oh Daaaan" she moaned rubbing his chest.

"Si-Silk Spectre—" his eyes shot open as he uttered the last syllable and he watched as her face turn into a look a disgust, anger and hurt.

"You asshole!" she slapped him through the face and crawled off of him, turning on the light and grabbing some jeans and a shirt.

"Laurie! I'm sorry.. It ... I just.."

"Save it" she snapped back, her hair flipping with her voice. She was getting dressed now. She was leaving now. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed, shirt open, looking like an idiot and feeling even worse.

"Where are you going?" he asked in a small voice, not looking at her.

"Out" she said quickly as she disappeared into the hall. A moment later he heard the front door slam. His heart sank.

He was alone.


	2. No Gods Here

II

No Gods Here

It was raining again. For the past week it had been raining each day, leaving small ponds all over the city. Making the citizens try ridiculously to run between rain drops. They always looked so silly doing so.

Laurie mumbled under her breath as a large rain drop fell directly on the end of the cigarette she had lit only a moment ago. It went out with a small fizzle sound that went unheard. She shoved her lighter back in her pocket. Defeated. Tired. Her hair was soaked and sticking to her face. She looked around for a moment, wondering where to go. Where could she go? All the people she knew were goddamn super heroes. And most of them were now in hiding, on Mars or dead.

"Maybe I should go home..." she mused to herself as she looked around the familiar but strange neighbourhood. She had passed these buildings, these business, homes, many times a day for the past few months, years even. But she knew no one. She recognized familiar faces of regulars at the newsstand and stumbling home from the bars. But she really knew none of them. The same way Dan didn't know her.

"Fuck him" she thought angrily, glaring at no one in particular as she marched down the wet sidewalk. He didn't know her at all. He didn't see her for who she was. The same way Jon didn't see her. Neither of them saw that she was...

Was what?

She stopped for a moment, twirling her lighter in her pocket, standing under the canopy of a small bar. She slid a cigarette between her lips and brought the lighter up automatically. What was it that they were missing? What didn't they see in her? The idea that Laurie herself couldn't answer that question made her shudder from more than just the cold rain.

Her mother had seen her as a vessel to live through, to shape into her image. Jon had seen her as his anchor to this world, and apparently not much else. Dan... What did Dan see her as? A sex toy? Just some companion who shared his bed? Her fists clenched as tears in her eyes began to sting.

No. She grinned. That's silly. She was just tired, not thinking straight. She flicked the cigarette butt to the ground and ground it in the pavement with the toe of her shoe. She flipped some stray, wet hairs from her face and breathed out serenely. "I need a drink".

One drink led to two then to too many and then to a hotel room where Laurie flopped down on the bed, trying to get the room to stay still if only for a moment.

"Fuckem" she slurred. "Fuckem aaalll" she seemed very proud with her accomplishments for the night. Whatever they may be.

She sat up, teetering on the edge of the bed with an unlit cigarette hanging out of her mouth, threatening to jump to the carpet never to be seen again. A small grin grew on Laurie's face and the cigarette fulfilled its threat.

"I", she announced standing up with her hands on her hips, "am going to tell him _**exactly **_what he can do with all of his goddamn owls!". She made her way clumsily out of her room, shutting the door behind her and pulling keys from her pocket. After several attempts and some dents and scratches around the knob, she was successful.

The rain had stopped. Now the puddles were free to lie still and become mirrors for the neon signs that surrounded them. Laurie stomped through a small puddle, destroying its reflection, as she marched towards Dan's house. A drunken, emotional, overly confident mess. With the clicks of her high heels echoing in the empty street, calling attention from shadows, she turned down an alley. A shortcut to Dan's. A shortcut to telling him off and finally creating a part of herself. A shortcut to becoming who she should be.

She stumbled and caught herself against a brick wall. She held onto her head, steadying either it or the alleyway as both seemed to be tilting to the left at an alarming rate. She felt vomit beginning to push its way up her throat but she refused it. She swallowed and slammed a fist against the brick wall. The pain rushed through her arm and the vomit settled as she focused on the throbbing feeling and the possible fracture. Vomiting would cause her to lose this confidence, she knew it. She knew that those feelings were welling in the pit of her stomach and allowing them to be released on the cement would surely cause her to turn back to the hotel, then go see Dan in the morning and share his bed that night.

She steadied herself. Took her hand off of the wall and began to walk slowly through the alleyway. She stopped once again, only having gone a few feet, to pull a cigarette from her pocket. As she motioned the lighter in front of her face, focusing not to burn her nose, she felt another wave of dizziness and reached out to place her hand on the wall once more. But her hand only met air as the side of her head began throbbing and made contact with rain and trash covered cement.

Laurie heard her lighter bounce across the ground, creating echoes something of that size would not normally create through the day. Through the day there would be tons of people all around this street, but at whatever am this was, it was only those Laurie knew all too well. The gang members, murderers, thieves, rapists, they all seemed to enjoy this time of night. Their presence made it so most citizens would not go through alleys at this hour, but Laurie was Silk Spectre. Laurie had amazing strength, speed and reflexes that had been shoved into her muscles and body since her first steps. Laurie was always the best in a fight, and could always take care of herself. She was the one who went on patrol alone. She was drunk.

Her vision was blurring, as she felt a tight hand force her onto her back. Her mind scrambled to catch up with what was going on, but everything was going either too fast or too slow. There were hands on her, cool wind on her as her clothes were ripped away. Warm liquid was running down the side of her head where the pain was growing.

Then it hit her.

A man was on top of her, grinning stupidly as he undid his belt with one hand and held Laurie's hands over her head with the other. He looked like he had just won some amazing prize. Laurie felt the vomit again as she realized that she was that prize. She struggled violently and the man's grin only grew. Where was all of her strength now? She screamed loudly, surprising herself. Suddenly cold metal slid across her neck.

"Shut up", the man growled. His voice was raspy and choked, with a hint of a smile, satisfaction and want. He was depraved and needy. "Or I will slit that pretty throat"

Laurie bit her lip. She was always the one saving people. She broke rapists' bones. She saved children from burning buildings. She caught murderers and put them behind bars. She was a hero, about to become a victim.

"I was a hero Goddammit..." she sobbed under her breath as she heard the shifting of the man's material. She shut her eyes tightly and felt the tears roll down her cheeks. "Dan...I'm so sorry"

The tears were warmer now. Thicker. Not rolling down her face so much as beading. Not tears at all. She knew this feeling. Blood was splattering on her face, mixing with tears. She felt the knife fall from her throat and land on the ground with a light echo.

With hesitation, Laurie opened her eyes, she was met with the end of a blood-covered machete only inches away from her gaping lips. With a sickening sound of broken bones, a large boot rested itself on the back of the man's head, another slick and sickening noise filled Laurie's head as the machete was pulled from the skull with minimal resistance.

"Oh God..." Laurie gasped as she felt the man being lifted off of her. Effortlessly the stranger tossed the man against the wall and watched him slide down. With one more cacophony of cracking bones and splattering blood and brain, the figure smashed the skull with their boot, laughed sadly and stated "no Gods here"


End file.
